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Patton Oswalt won the Emmy for best writing for a variety special on Sunday night.
Oswalt, whose wife died earlier this year, said he wanted to share the award with two people: his daughter “waiting at home” and another person “waiting somewhere else, I hope.” The comedian was genuinely surprised that he won, thanking his fellow comic nominees Tig Notaro, John Mulaney and Amy Schumer.
Backstage, Oswalt was a mix of excited and somber — excited that his Emmy means he “gets to do more stand-up” and somber that he can’t share it with his late wife, Michelle McNamara.
“Every bit of growth I’ve had in my career, especially in writing and performing, came because I met and married Michelle McNamara, this woman who was so much wiser and self-actualized in life than I was,” he said backstage. “I had convinced myself I was self-actualized and mature but then I met the real deal. I didn’t prepare a speech because … I was so OK with going, there’s people in my life that help me to aspire to something and evolve to something better and I’m lucky to get to have that in my life. [But] to have that ripped out of my life the way it has been this year, I’m not trying to say this is meaningless but the lights have been turned down 50 percent on everything. It’s going to be a long time before I can be the kind of person she made me again.”
The special beat out HBO’s Amy Schumer: Live at the Apollo, written by Schumer; Netflix’s John Mulaney: The Comeback Kid, written by Mulaney; HBO’s Tig Notaro: Boyish Girl Interrupted, written by Notaro; and Hulu’s Triumph’s Election Special 2016, written by Robert Smigel, David Feldman, RJ Fried, Michael Koman, Brian Reich, Andy Breckman, Josh Comers, Raj Desai, Jarrett Grode, Ben Joseph, Matthew Kirsch, Michael Lawrence, Craig Rowin, Zach Smilovitz, David Taylor and Andy Weinberg, with additional material by Jesse Joyce, Alex Scordelis, Ray James and Jason Reich.
Jimmy Kimmel is hosting the 2016 Primetime Emmy Awards, airing live on ABC from the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles.
A complete list of winners can be found here. The winners for the Creative Arts Emmys, which were handed out last weekend over two nights, can be found here.
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